homeschoolwithaview: Some Fun Things We've Done Recently (11/8/2010)

Here are a few of the fun things we managed to fit in this week amidst our regular Explode the Code, beginning readers, math workbook, etc. (Not that those things aren't fun, they just aren't as much fun to write about.)

Math activities: Read 1,2,3 Sassafrass by Stuart J. Murphy and played some card games that involved organizing numbers from the greatest to smallest and smallest to greatest. Later that day, on a 30 minute car ride, we played a game where I called out two random numbers and the kids had to tell me which one was bigger. We made up silly sentences like, "Would you rather have 12 chocolate bunnies on Easter or 22 chocolate bunnies?" or "Would you rather have 16 ride tickets for the state fair midway or 89 ride tickets?", etc. Another day we dyed a variety of pasta shapes by mixing them with 1/2 cup of vinegar and 10 or so drops of food coloring. When they were dry enough to play with, we sorted them according to shape, color, size, etc.
As we have continued reading History for Little Pilgrims by Michael McHugh, we have come to the chapters portraying the events of the very early church, soon after Jesus left the earth and promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples. The story of Polycarp gave us the perfect opportunity to discuss the fact that there are still Christians around the world who are martyred for their faith. We made place mats for the table to remind us to pray for the persecuted church. I took construction paper and wrote on it, "We pray for people everywhere to learn about Jesus." The children then cut pictures of various people out of old National Geographic magazines and we glued them to the construction paper and labeled the pictures with where each person was from. We have a large laminated world map on our dining room table, so at lunch time we choose one person, locate their country on the map, and pray for that part of the world. I had also hoped to make cards with a simple gospel message on the inside to mail to friends, but we will have save that project for another time.
For music class on Monday, we learned about the concept of quarter, half, and whole notes. We spent some time beating out various beats with our hands. Then we got distracted by watching YouTube videos of Julie Andrews singing Do a Deer, instead of creating a "kitchen band", as I had anticipated, and marching around the house beating out rhythms on pot lids, spoons, etc.
Thursday was my favorite day this week. Once a month the children and I try to make it to the Bible study my pastor does at the nursing home on Thursdays. I really want my children to learn to interact with people outside of their peer group and to have opportunities to brighten the days of people around them. Thursday our chosen "day brightener" was bringing banana bread to the residents. I think they liked the bread, but mostly they love to exclaim over the baby and dig around in their pockets and hand bags for things to play with the older two with. Since it was Veteran's Day, one of the residents, a World War II vet, wore a large medal of some sort that completely captivated the imagination of my six-year-old son. Later that afternoon, we wrapped up a second loaf of the banana bread and walked up the street to the dilapidated home of a lonely Vietnam Vet who lives near us. It was a simple loaf of bread and a simple note thanking him and petitioning God to bless those who serve our country in the armed forces, but the simple act brought the man to tears. This was such a humbling reminder of how easy it is to bless those around us, especially those who are normally overlooked and forgotten.
For art class on Friday, we made patchwork pumpkins. I started the project off by creating a variety of "patchwork squares" with permanent markers on a couple of pumpkins. The children and I then colored in the squares using a variety of colored permanent markers. Once that was done, we covered the original black lines with glitter. I did this with Elmer's glue and glitter and made a HUGE mess. Should we ever do this project again, I will definitely use those nifty little glitter-glue pens you can buy in the craft section of Target.

The Finished Project